'Tis the season

and the time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas .
I am rather late as this week has been extremely busy and I only finished wrapping gifts around 3pm today (so not organised this year).
  To my overseas friends , I apologise for not sending cards this year , to be frank I could not afford the postage costs , however it does not mean that I haven't been thinking of you and I do wish you the very best for the season.
 Thanks to all my followers ,especially those few who take the time to leave comments on this blog of mine , it is much appreciated. I will be back soon with the usual end of year round up and aims for next year .

With warm wishes for a wonderful Christmas filled with love and laughter .

Cath x

Out with the old.

In with the New.

Happy New Year everyone , I know I'm a day late . I was going to post last night , but then hubby asked if I wanted to watch a DVD with him while having cheese and crackers . Can't turn an offer like that down , so blogging had to wait ,lol .

Anyway , time for the recap and plan post , so here goes.

 Last year , I read 114 books , a huge improvement on the last couple of years , so I'm pretty happy with it , especially as it did not look like I'd get anywhere near that at the start of the year.
 I had a lovely pile of books for Christmas to help me get a good start in this year .

I've already read the two on the right and made a start on the third.

Stitching wise , I had 44 starts , and 48 finishes , which again I'm quite impressed with especially as some of those finishes were old UFOs .

 I stitched 28 squares for Love Quilts , and a card  , a card for hubby , 4 bookmarks for my lovely kids , two other finishes for me , and two UFOs finished ,and one of them was finished on the 30th December , so you haven't even seen it yet !

 I have one WIP , which will probably be left for a while as I had a new start yesterday , but that comes in with the plans bit ,so more in a short while . First , the ORTs !

 My ort jar from two angles , lots of pretties in here , but it's now been emptied out all ready for a new years worth .

So , my big finish at the end of last year was my oldest UFO , started in 2009. I was stitching on it when my cousin was killed in a car accident and just put it down . I've picked it up on and off occasionally , but decided that it needed to be finished . After I finished up my owls earlier on last year , I admit I did put this off a bit , but once I got going it wasn't actually that bad . I have changed a couple of things ,and added some personalisation , and overall I'm quite pleased with it.

Forgive the bits of paper , I don't post my familys' names on line. It is also in need of a good press , but as it's going to be put away for a few months I'm going to leave that until I'm ready to have it framed , probably around my birthday  ,then it will be ready and waiting in time for next Christmas.
 I'm quite excited about it now it's done , this is my first seasonal stitched piece .

Plans ,well , I don't make definite plans , just have ideas of what I'd like to do .

My new start yesterday was a HAED , which I'm doing for the FB challenge of stitching a page between Jan 1st and April 7th . It was going to be until 3rd March , but they extended it . I'm stitching TT A Pale Comparison for my Daughter , and she's quite excited about it.

This is my progress from yesterday and today .

My other plans are really to do more personal stitching . I do love stitching for Love Quilts and will continue to do so , but I need to get more of my own projects done . I have so much stash , it's shameful . Also , I want to do more for my kids , so once this one is done , I'll be starting a HAED for my son. I'd also really like to complete Rosita, so three HAEDs on the go ,lol .

I am planning on stitching Pumpkin Patch Inn this year too , and hopefully Holmseys' Winter Wonderland , and probably Promise Of Spring by Silver Creek Samplers which I bought from the lovely Mouse .

 So , looks like I'm going to be fairly busy this coming year .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

Seasons' Greetings

Hope everyone has a wonderful time this Christmas . I can't wait to have a relaxing day with my family.
 Take care ,
Cath

Winter

Wow , it only seems a few days ago that I was posting about my Autumn walk , and now we are nearly at Christmas.
 I have done some stitching since last time , but not as much as I would have liked. The last couple of months have seemed to lurch from one problem to the next .

 After my hip got better , I came down with a really bad cold, which is only now starting to go, five/six weeks later. I went from a sore throat to the blocked up nose , then got the cough which seemed to come and go. then I got blocked ears so last week , every time I blew my nose the world started to spin , I got so dizzy that I threw up. Not pleasant.

 We had a plumbing problem which was not cheap , hubby broke the crown off one of his teeth and has had several dental appointments to sort that and other problems out.

We lost my boys' much loved pet gerbil on the 14th November. Gracie was a real character and will be very much missed, but we now have four of the little buggers. My son got another two and after deliberating as she originally wanted Degus , my daughter has two gerbils now as well. They are all very tame and love to run round on us all . Love them to bits.

 And now we have a problem with the washer not draining properly. I think it's actually the sink pipes that are blocked so hopefully we will get that sorted tomorrow. The car goes for its' MOT on Friday and I'm dreading it .

 Also got a bit of a shock this morning with a horrible message from someone I care about , still reeling a bit from that.

 Had to go into town this morning on the bus , and an old chap told me that things can only get worse , and I wanted to clock him one ,lol.

Anyway . on to the important stuff, let's look at some stitching .

 Another Love Quilts square , I have done now for this year , and not sure how much I will do next year. I really want to do more of my own stitching , and I'm out of aida at the moment , so will have to see how it goes .

  For some reason , blogger will not show this the right way up , but I love this little guy , just looking at him makes me smile . I need to get him framed.

I have started another project , but not got very far on it. I've also been working on my oldest UFO and hope to get it finished before the end of the year.

 I am hoping to join the HAED challenge that begins on Jan 1st , to stitch a page before 3rd March. It will mean a new start so I want that UFO out of the way.

  I will be back with the years efforts and plans for next year , until then though , wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas , hope the season brings you all that you wish for. I just want a lovely day with my family.

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Ringing the changes.

  Hope everyone had a good Christmas . Ours was lovely . We had the day at home and visited family before hand as hubby was back to work Boxing Day . It does feel like Christmas was cut short and I am ready to tale down the decs , but will leave it until next week when the kids are back at school .
  The kids best Christmas presents were Minecraft for the X-box, google game play cards so they could put Minecraft on their tablets , and slush cups ,lol.

   I got no stitchy stash for Christmas , but I got money so will put that towards crafty stuff. Hoping to get one of my finishes framed with some of the money, I have been doing more charity stitching than anything else for the last few years and I got to thinking that maybe it's because I have finishes lying around and at least my squares are used and appreciated. Bearing this in mind,  my plan for this year is to do more personal stitching. I don't do resolutions , but I do have "plans" ,lol. I will still stitch for Love Quilts , but will be working on a lot more of my own projects.

 So , no new year start for me , instead I plan on finishing. I have two small (but big) projects on the go .
 This one is for my daughter.

 and this one is a LQ a/c square.

Both were started in October , but put away while I did the HAED challenge in November.
 I also have my two OFOs,
 Christmas Recipe

 and Three Little Maids

I will finish these early this year , as I want some new starts and I've promised myself no new starts until these are finished.
 And there is Rosita to work on .

  Some of my Christmas money is already gone as I placed an order for fabric and threads to kit up these .
 Play With Me

 and TT A Pale Comparison.

Other than LQ squares , these will be my first new starts this year . Can't wait .

 Picked this up from a charity shop on Tuesday when I took the kids out to spend their money and book tokens. I think I have it , but not sure and can't find it , so also plan to sort out my stash this year ,lol .

  Last years' orts, all squished in the jar

 and spread out a bit.

 And my new ort jar all ready to be filled through out the year .

Thanks for dropping by , and a Happy New Year to you all.
Cath

Seasons' Greetings

Just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas , hope you have a lovely time with family and friends .
 Got the grocery shopping done early Tuesday morning, all gifts are wrapped ,all veggies prepped for tomorrow. All that is left to do is enjoy my take-away tonight and try and get the kids to actually sleep. Yeah , good luck with that one ,lol.

Still windy and very wet here , so no white Christmas for us , but hopefully a good one nonetheless.
  Take care
Cath

Almost ready

for Christmas .
 Bought the last to be bought gifts yesterday . Hubby has graciously nominated me to make two scarves for Monday , so going to have  busy weekend .
 We finally got he tree up last night and it is fully laden with "stuff" thanks to the kids ,lol.
Now, I have have lots and lots of wrapping to do. A quick tidy up this afternoon as we have people coming over this evening , should be fun .

 A little bit of stitching has been done . Love quilts any child squares.

  Not sure if this will end up a LQ square or if I will do something with it myself .
    There is a set of ten charts and I kind of fancy doing them all and maybe attempting a lap quilt , but we will see. I am enjoying the very little stitching time I'm getting at the moment .

Hope everyone is well and safe and looking forward to the festive season.

Take care ,

 Cath

Christmas in August .

I organised a Christmas in July exchange, but due to a few interruptions, Gaynor and I ended up exchanging in August . (Chemo brain on one side and PO closure for refurb. on the other ,lol ) .  Coincidentally we ended up posting and receiving on the exact same days , so it all worked well in the end .
 This is what I sent to Gaynor .

 Note book , to - do list and ribbons.

 LHN Sheep Virtues "Hope" , stitched using mostly recommended threads , apart from BS5200 instead of Ecru for the snow and snow flake and Wispa thread for the sheepie.

 The backing fabby.

Gaynor excelled once again , with a fantastic design and amazing finish .

  Love this design and what a great idea to fix it to a stash box.

 Wrapped goodies .

 Lots of treats

 Stash !

Thanks again Gaynor , for a great exchange. I love it all . The choccy is going down well with everyone ,lol .

Well , that's all for now , got to get ready for the girlys' swimming lesson, but have lots more bits to catch up on ,so should be back soon.
 Take care ,
 Cath x

A couple of finishes .

 I'm on a roll here folks .
 I finished up ABCD by La-D-Da yesterday. Very happy with how it turned out, this time ,lol. I originally started with a totally different colour ,and didn't like how it came out one little bit .
   I think it is the wishy-washy pale green/grey that put me off, but it just wasn't working .

 So , I pulled out some four stranded thread by 21st century yarns that I bought at Harrogate a few years ago , and it was much better . I just used one strand of thread as it is thicker than standard stranded cotton, but the coverage is quite good .

  This is stitched on a random piece of even weave that was in a bargain pack from Readicut a few years ago. I think it is something weird like 26ct , but looks quite nice.

  A better idea of the colours , though I have struggled to get a good picture with the horrible weather we are having at the moment.

  Ta- Daa!

 My attempt at a panoramic shot ,lol .

 So , all done and dusted and the chart will be zipping back up to the Mouse House next week .

 Todays' finish requires a little explanation . In my Daughters' class at school , they have a "Star of the week" every week, which is decided on Fridays. My Daughter was chosen on the last day of term , so it continues until the first Friday back at school .
 As "Star" she got to bring home Freddy the Fish. We were originally going to make him a Christmas Stocking , but time kind of disappeared and I am now pretty much done with Christmas ,so we decided to go with a sleeping bag instead.
  My lovely girl decided after we had made the sleeping bag that she wanted his name on it, so I found out a bit of aida band and made it up as I went along . Then she decided that she wanted a picture of him on it too.

  The completed sleeping bag .

 Freddy

 and his likeness, which I think is pretty good for the size of it .

 It fits !

 LOL, My Daughter was very happy with it , so it was worth the afternoon and evening spent making it up.

 As I said , I am pretty much done with Christmas. The tree is still up , but hopefully only until tomorrow .

  My new wreath , made by MIL will stay up a little longer though .Very pretty .

 And , I can't believe I forgot to show my new pretty . Though actually ,it's understandable in a way as it was put up out of the cats' way to try and keep it safe .
  My new cup candle , with a pair of antique scissors attached. Not sure what the perfume is , but it smells gorgeous , and I love it . Still debating on whether or not to remove the scissors.

 Well ,think that's about it for now . Stay safe everyone , the weather is being pretty horrible to lots of people at the moment .
 Take care ,
Cath

Happy New Year !

I remembered some more bits from last year (seems weird saying that ,lol.)
 Anyway , I little finish for my boy. This only took a couple of hours ,if that. I plan to put it in a key ring for him .

 I also stitched this up with the intention of making a notebook cover for my niece. I fluffed up on the final finishing though , so held it back. I will stitch it again and it will either be a just because gift or for her birthday , depending on when I do it .

 Orts ! I don't join in with the Tusal posts , but do like a show of orts at the end of the year . The kids graffittid my tub , so need another one at some point ,lol.

 Out of the jar .

  And a very special Christmas gift from a friend. Isn't this just gorgeous ? I love it so much and am going to display it on my shelf when i gets cleared of bumpf .

  And these lovely hand made earrings. So precious ,and a totally unexpected gift . For the last couple of years I have run a Secret Santa for my hubby and his blogging buddies (they paint and play with little figures). This year , his Santa also sent me a gift for organising things , how sweet is that. And , they were made by Mrs Claus , very impressed. Hubbys' other Santa (two different rounds) also sent me a big tub of Fruit Pastilles ,lol .

  A little bit of stash . Still waiting to hear about the rest of the threads I ordered. Must chase them up.

 I was thrilled to find this at the weekend . Had to take the kids out to spend their Christmas money and came across this mag . I looked all over for it a couple of months ago and couldn't find it , so it came home with me .

 As always, thanks for dropping by .

Cath